Dr. Pierre Hélaouët
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Role:

During the four years I have spent at SAHFOS, I have developed new methods to quantify, compare and represent the ecological niches of species which are central to both fundamental and applied research in biogeography.

This has led to the development of a new approach linking physiology, ecological niches and species distribution as well as a simple method to predict C. finmarchicus abundances. Over the past 10 years species distribution models have become important in studies of biogeography, conservation biology, ecology, palaeoecology and wildlife management. This vibrant and relatively new field of enquiry has become increasingly prevalent among new scientific challenges emerging in the understanding of long-term ecological changes in the oceans. To follow up my previous research, I am designing a new conceptual approach to assess the energy transport within an ecosystem. The aim is to build new indices based on long-term biological and physical surveys able to summarise the complex network of information exchange characteristic of a particular area.

An essential aspect of this work will be to use fundamental notions of scales, energy transfer and biophysics interactions to assess the ecological health of marine ecosystems, ranging from U.K. regional seas to the global Ocean.

Background, qualifications and professional membership:

I did my master degree under the supervision of Dr. Gregory Beaugrand (CNRS researcher) in the "Oceanology and Geosciences" laboratory of Wimereux (France). The aim was to study the factors and mechanisms explaining the spatial distribution of Calanus finmarchicus and Calanus helgolandicus in the North Atlantic Ocean.

This work has been used to obtained fundings from the European network of excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis (EUR-OCEANS: http://www.eur-oceans.eu/) to carry out a PhD at the University of Plymouth under the spuervision of Pr P.C. Reid, Dr G. Beaugrand, Pr. M. Attrill.

My PhD thesis deals with the impact of climate changes on the structure and functioning of pelagic ecosystems in the North Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas using two key-structural species Calanus finmarchicus and Calanus helgolandicus. A macroecological approach, based on the notion of ecological niche (Hutchinson 1957) is selected. The main objective is to propose scenarios of changes in the evolution of North Atlantic pelagic ecosystems as a function of the modifications in the climate regime. Both characterisation and quantification of uncertainties related to the predictions constitute an essential aspect of the project.

During my PhD I also attempted to two summer schools devoted to advance statistics and programming ("Towards ecosystem oceanography: Identification and modelling of controls in marine ecosystems in Denmark" and "Habitat modelling of marine populations in Portugal"). This gave me the ability to program new analysis based on literature, to improve techniques already used, to create analysis ready to use by other members of the team (GUI: graphical user interface) which does not necessitate neither statistical backgrounds nor advanced computing skills.

Research Interests:

Zooplankton ecology, mesoscale physical-biological interactions, climate change, time-series analyses. Modelling of the responses of key species to changes in hydro-climatic forcing.

Publications:

Helaouët, P., Beaugrand, G., 2009. Physiology, ecological niches and species distribution. Ecosystems 12, 1235 - 1245.

Beaugrand, G., Helaouët, P., 2008. Simple procedures to assess and compare the ecological niche of species. Marine Ecology Progress Series 363, 29-37.

Beaugrand, G., Lindley, J.A., Helaouët, P., Bonnet, D., 2007. Macroecological study of Centropages typicus in the North Atlantic Ocean. Progress in Oceanography. 72, 259-273.

Helaouët, P., Beaugrand, G., 2007. Macroecology of Calanus finmarchicus and C. helgolandicus in the North Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 345, 147-165.

Helaouët, P., Beaugrand, G., Reid, P.C., submitted. Macroscale ecophysiology of Calanus finmarchicus in the North Atlantic Ocean. Progress in Oceanography.

Roles on external bodies / national / international responsibilities:

Links:

http://www.cnrs.fr/index.php

http://sm-wimereux.univ-lille1.fr/

http://www.eur-oceans.eu/